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Tuck a Cheap Shot -*- Copyright 2003 by Ellen Hayes.
Any resemblance between the writings in this work, and any actual
persons or places, living or dead, are purely coincidental, except when
used for satirical purposes.
This work contains adult situations, adult language, adult concepts, and
possibly sex. If you are legally not allowed to read materials
containing such things, then you will be breaking the law by reading
this. I am not responsible.
Continuing to read this document, or storing it or reproducing it
in any format means that you explicitly affirm that you are legally
allowed to possess and read such materials in your city, county/parish,
state, and country.
All rights reserved. See the bottom for distribution rights.
Tuck A Cheap Shot
***
15:24 5 Oct
"Eugene, come into our room," Dad told me.
"What now?!"
"Part three," he said sternly. "Now that your mother is calmer, we
have some more questions to ask you."
"I told you everything!"
"No you did not," he stated. "But, you will. Out!"
As we left the laundry room, he added, "And if I were you, I would
not bring up Debbie's visit today, at all."
He tried pushing me to get me to go, but that didn't work; and I
almost lunged free. "Eugene! She's drugged!"
"What?" I asked as I stopped.
"She decided some sedation was in order," he explained sourly.
"MOM did?"
"Which means, you have an obligation to show up."
"Can I have some too?"
"Only if you don't talk; then we pull out the pentothal."
I wasn't sure if he was kidding, but I really didn't want to find
out if either of them could set an IV in my arm.
***
15:26 5 Oct
"Why is Brian in here?!"
Mom announced, "He's got a right to know what's been going on-"
"No he does NOT."
"Shut up!" he complained at me.
"KNOCK IT OFF!" Mom screamed suddenly.
Pause.
"I would suggest," Dad said calmly from behind me, "that you two
don't put on your usual sibling rivalry act right now. Your mother has
about had it, and I have about had it myself. Eugene, you've set him up
for shit as well, and he doesn't know what's going on either."
"Erk," I mentioned, but quietly.
Dad shut the door, went over to the bed, and tossed me and Brian
each a pillow. I sat on the floor and wrapped myself around mine like
it was shielding or something. That's why we'd gotten them.
"Brian is in here," Mom said, far more calmly than I'd heard her all
weekend, "because the essence of what you've done is lied to us, all of
us. Now, the truth will be exposed. And if you don't like it, you
should have thought of that before hiding things like you have been.
Brian," and he ducked, "will not discuss this outside of this room.
Agreed, Brian?" He nodded silently and quickly. "Brian's been given
the basic details, and he will be quiet for the rest of these unless he
has something useful to add. Do you agree to keep this matter within
this house and to stay quiet unless you have something to add?"
She stared at him until he agreed, "Yes ma'am."
"Eugene," she started on me. "You will answer questions put to
you, and you will NOT lie," she growled a bit. "Right?"
That was one of those questions you couldn't answer 'yes' or 'no'
to safely, so I said, "Aye-aye ma'am."
Pause.
"Eugene," Dad started. "Why are you doing this?"
"What? Doing what? Sitting- Don't yell at me!" I complained at
Mom before she could say whatever it was, driven to incredible speeds of
reflex by fear. "I don't understand the question!"
Dad sighed as Mom did not come over and try to eviscerate me. I
breathed a lot and wondered if we had any asthma medication in the house
that was still good.
"You spend," Dad tried again, "a great deal of your time as a girl,
is that correct?"
"Not a great d- Okay," I admitted after Mom locked on again.
"Postulated." I glanced at Brian as I started to blush in shame, but he
was holding the pillow in front of his face to keep from letting
anything like an exclamation escape. Which was another reason we had
pillows.
"Why?"
"Wh- Uh. I don't know?" I whimpered.
"Wrong answer," Mom told me.
"Sheila said," Dad said, "and you agreed in session, that you feel
more socially accepted like that, as a girl. Is that correct?"
"Oh god." I resolved never to talk to Sheila again, and never to
let my parents attend another session either. Not that I'd invited them
to the last one.
"Is that true?" Mom asked.
"I, I guess," I admitted, starting to choke up.
Mom stopped, and lay backwards on their bed and looked at the
ceiling without saying anything for a long time.
"Brian," she called eventually, and Brian squeaked a bit. "What's
the general rule on punishments in this house?"
He finally answered, "Uh... Once you've been punished, you've been
punished; that's it, unless you do it again."
"Eugene, you've been punished for lying to us about where you were
going and with whom, and in general for not telling us something
important and dangerous that you were doing," she said, still apparently
looking at the ceiling.
Pause.
Then she pushed herself upright again and looked at me. "You're
not going to get it twice, okay? Just answer the questions. I... I
don't understand this," she admitted, "and I don't know why you're doing
it, or what you see in it..." She trailed off.
"Well, I mean, I don't understand it either, I mean..."
"Then tell us what you do know, alright?" she said calmly.
"Okay," I breathed. Then I did some more breathing, because it
felt good.
"Why do you feel more socially accepted as a girl?" Mom asked.
"I don't-"
"Tell us what you SEE, Eugene," Dad said dispassionately. "What
you feel. You don't have to explain WHY, just tell us what."
"Okay." Maybe I could do that. "Um."
Pause.
Maybe I couldn't.
"Eugene?" Mom prompted, but quietly, or I would have jumped out of
my skin. "Is it because you want to be a girl?"
"What?"
"Live your life as-"
"No!" They blinked at that.
Several times.
Dad said eventually, "So you weren't bullshitting us when you said
you wanted to take the testosterone shots."
"Well, I said I was willing," I corrected. "It's, I mean, it's
worth the tradeoff, I think. I still don't like shots."
"They'll change your body from the way it is now," Mom pointed out,
like I didn't know that. "You won't be able to look like a girl as
easily then."
"Yeah, but that'll take a while," I said. "An' what I thought was,
I could keep working an' stuff until it started happening, and then quit
work, stop going out, stuff like that."
"Why not now?" Dad asked.
"'Cause, I mean, I wanted to, to do it longer... I mean, it IS a
job, and I agreed to do it, right? So, I mean, if I quit later, I'd
like tell people in time to set up a new arrangement and stuff. Not
sudden like this." Dad nodded at that.
"Doesn't..." Mom started, then stopped and looked like she was
thinking about what she wanted to say. That was a VERY good sign; I
wasn't sure she'd been thinking at all this weekend, and her reflexes
tended to the violent sometimes.
"Doesn't being a girl at work there BOTHER you? Or what about
other places?" she asked.
I shrugged. "No... I mean, except for the fact I don't have to
worry about getting beaten up and stuff, I mean-" Brian made a lot of
noise relatively speaking from behind his pillow. "No I'm serious!" I
complained at him. "You've never seen it, so shut up!"
"Brian," Dad added, "he's been doing it for a long time, and you
said you'd never been caught, right?"
"Yeah," I agreed.
"IF you're right," he emphasized at me, "then obviously you're
doing it that well, and you don't have to worry about discovery except
under unusual circumstances."
"That's exactly what I'm worried about!" Mom burst out. "Eugene,
what if something happened to you? What if you got an asthma attack, or
broke your arm or something? What if you got stopped for speeding?"
"I don't speed!"
"Eugene!"
"Sarah!" called Dad. "Whoa, time out," he announced right after he
hollered at Mom.
Pause. I closed my eyes so I wouldn't see anyone who'd pissed me
off or upset me recently, i.e., everyone in the room.
"Okay," Dad said, "Sarah's right, what if something happened?"
I shrugged. "I've lived a long time without ID, before I got my
license I mean, and so..." I shrugged again. "Unless I was driving, it
wasn't going to be a problem, and if I'm driving I'm real careful."
"Accidents are not always your fault, Eugene!" Mom protested.
"What if someone else got in one with your car!"
"Mom! Come on!" I complained, "That's not gonna happen!"
"Whoa!" Dad called again, and we both stopped. "Eugene, you are
wrong on this one; accidents can happen no matter how good your reflexes
are or how much attention you are paying to your surroundings. Sarah,
he wasn't thinking about that, or that far ahead; this is why we don't
let them vote."
Mom and I glared at Dad for a while.
"You said," Dad said to me, "that you DON'T have to worry about
being beaten up, if you're dressed as a girl, right?"
"Uh... Yeah," I agreed.
"Why not?"
"Um." I thought. "Well, um, it's like, guys, everyone, they don't
see me as a target or something; I just disappear into the crowd usually
or something like that. Like this, people'll- especially at school,
they'll cross the street to pick on me. Like that, they don't."
"'That' being as a girl, and 'this' being as a boy?" Mom asked.
"Uh. Yeah," I nodded.
"Why is that?"
"I don't fucking know!" I complained. "I wish I fucking did!
Fuck, I think some of it is just fucking habit, they think they can pick
on me all the time, and they don't want to give it up!"
"Language," Mom said, and I almost told her to fuck off before my
baser instincts towards survival kicked in. Besides, she didn't sound
that pissed off, which was a little weird.
***
15:44 5 Oct
"You said, except for NOT having to worry about being beaten up,"
Dad rewound. "And then you got interrupted and we went off on a
tangent. What were you going to say?"
"Uh, what was 'except for not having to worry'?"
He frowned, trying to remember. "Um-"
"Does being a girl at work or other places bother you?" Mom asked
again, and now I remembered something like that.
"Oh, yeah..." I shook my head. "No, it doesn't. I mean, it bugs
me if I'm, like, doing the guy thing and someone thinks I'm a girl, but
that's dangerous. Guys beat up fags, and that's a stereotypical 'fag'
thing to do, act girly or something, so they'd take it as a sign from
God that I was marked for abuse. And, so far, I mean, I've been lucky
and that hasn't happened around someone unfriendly." I shrugged. "I
mean, like they'd do anything besides make fun of me and beat me up and
stuff, like they do now anyway..."
"Eugene," Mom sighed. "Back to the question."
"Does being a girl bother me?" She nodded. "Um... No, not
really."
"Why not?" she asked.
Pause.
When I got unstunned, I complained, "WHAT?"
"It would bother me," Dad mentioned.
"Yeah, me too," Brian agreed after a gesture from Mom. "I mean, if
someone did that to me I'd kick their-" He stopped after a different
gesture and went back into his pillow.
"And I don't want to be taken for a man," Mom said.
"A- It- Well, it doesn't bother me!"
"Why not?"
I tried to say something, then something else, then gave up,
because nothing would come out. I mean, at all. "I don't know! It
just doesn't!"
***
15:54 5 Oct
"Is there anyone BESIDES us in this room who DOESN'T know?" Mom
complained, sounding bitter.
"Yeah, lots of people!"
"Like who?!"
"Um, Dana, the rest of the family... Most of the kids at school
don't know, or I'd be in more sh- uh, having more problems than I am
now."
"Oh my god," Mom complained to the ceiling. "Oh my god."
"He probably knows too," Dad said, and Mom hit him.
"None of my friends know," Brian mentioned, "or I'd have heard
about it. They just think you're gay."
"Your little faggot friends think I'M-"
"EUGENE!" Dad barked. "Quiet, and don't be a bigot. You pipe down
too," he ordered Brian.
"ARE you gay?" Mom asked.
"NO!" Brian shrieked, his voice cracking. I almost did too, but I
couldn't, quite, and I think the inadvertant pause told them everything
they didn't want to know.
***
15:58 5 Oct
After a long silence, during which I'd had to get up and blow my
nose because I felt very very bad, Dad asked, "Eugene? What makes you
think you are?"
I trembled for a while, then said, "I don't want to answer that
question with Brian in the room." My voice trembled too, I was mildly
annoyed to note; I hated sounding like a wimp in front of my parents.
It happened often enough, but I still didn't like it.
Long pause, during which I studied the overly-familiar carpet in
front of me. After a while, I noticed I was rocking again.
"Brian, go get us some drinks from downstairs, and knock before you
come back in," Mom told him.
"I don't think I want to hear this either," Brian agreed as he got
up and got out of there quickly, closing the door behind him.
Pause.
"I changed my mind," I said sickly. "Can, can we not talk about
this for a w- Two weeks?" I corrected. It was too painful to deal with
right now, I was discovering; and it was getting worse by the second.
"Why?!" she demanded.
"Please Mom!" I almost sobbed. "Just two weeks, I swear I'll talk
about it then, just not now, please?!"
"Until the next session with Sheila," Dad bargained, and I nodded
frantically. Anything but now-
"ARE you homosexual?" Mom asked.
"Yessss!" I forced out, and then I was really crying again. Then I
went, "Ahh!" because I wasn't expecting to be touched, but it was Mom
just kneeling and hugging me, and then I lost it completely.
"Eugene, We still love you," she crooned into my ear, but that just
made me feel worse.
***
16:22 5 Oct
"Sarah, let's call it a day, huh?" Dad suggested, sounding like he
had a headache or something.
"Yeah, I think so," she agreed. "Eugene, why don't you go lie down
before supper?"
"Okay," I agreed numbly, and she had to help me up, but I could
make it the rest of the way. I ended up falling across the remainder of
the laundry, which I was going to finish later, and I think I passed out
about that fast.
***
19:23 5 Oct
"Wow, you weren't kidding," I mentioned dully; I was still pretty
dull from the nap I'd just woken up from. The dining room table was
FULL of white cardboard and styrofoam boxes, and for a change it
actually smelled good. "What did you get?"
"One of everything, I think," Dad grumbled. "I let Brian order."
"Dad, you fool," I commented with a vague smile.
"Shaddup, kid," he replied casually, and ruffled my hair.
***
21:31 5 Oct
"Oh, man," I moaned as I crawled into bed. "I can't decide which
is worse, school days or weekends." They were all stressing me out.
"Maybe I should've let Sheila lock me up... jus' f'r a couple weeks..."
***
23:17 5 Oct
Too much stress had made me stupid; I'd begun to think I could
sleep without the nightmares trying to kill me.
As I was rubbing my hands, trying to erase the feeling of handcuffs
and needles, Brian peeked in, and I had to fight an urge to just slam
the door into his face. It hadn't been HIM that had ordered the door
permanently broken...
"Just another fucking nightmare," I sighed, and Brian left.
***
05:44 6 Oct
*Well, if this doesn't do it, nothing will,* I thought with a sigh
of contentment. Modified PROM for the BIOS, plus a call-home buried in
the Windazed side of the disk, pretty much insured that if my laptop got
stolen it'd scream for help, and if it couldn't do that then it would be
returned for factory service, and sent back to me. And, everything
except the PROM tested out & worked on Niflhelm, my desktop Windoze box.
*If only I had my laptop-*
Then the fatigue and pain and shame and everything fell on me
again, and I wished idly that I was dead, so I wouldn't have to keep
carrying it all.
***
06:44 6 Oct
"Dad! We have to GO!" I complained, seething. I didn't have car
keys any more, and he was SUPPOSED to take me to school since the school
buses didn't run this early and it was too far to walk easily. If I'd
known he was going to pull this shit, I could've gotten off the systems
a couple hours ago and walked and made it on time, if I'd known, which I
didn't.
He fumbled his way out of his room, cursing and dancing with his
pants, and I turned away.
***
06:57 6 Oct
He'd sped far too fast for my comfort, but I did make it on time,
which I didn't think was going to happen. He also hadn't said anything,
which I hadn't imagined either, but was more understandable; he didn't
talk much when he was just waking up. The girls were nowhere to be
seen, which I wondered at as I got out and sped towards the Industrial
Farts building.
***
06:59 6 Oct
"Tuck?!" Jill asked, and Kim jerked her head up, looking very
startled. "Mike said-"
"Not here," I ordered as I sat down. "But if he told you about an
eight word message Saturday, it's all true." I was so tired...
"We weren't waiting for you outside because, because of that," Kim
said carefully.
"Oh." I thought a bit. Well, a few bits. "Good idea."
"You're shaking," Jill observed, pointing at my hands.
I looked, and they were, so I sat on them. "I didn't really have a
good weekend," I admitted, with a sickly laugh.
***
08:04 6 Oct
"Jeezus, I am tired of hearing about this," I sighed as the speaker
droned on about homecoming and all the wonderful things that could
happen if only we'd cough up more money for things like tickets and
floral arrangements and photography reservations.
"Just one more week," Kim tried to console me.
"Then we get the Halloween bullshit," Jill reminded her. "Tuck?
Are you... Okay?" she asked hesitantly.
I sighed deeply. "I dunno. Grounded for three weeks, which means
I have no car any more... A fine, and-"
"Oh!" Kim startled. "Did Debbie give you your pay?"
"No?" Beat. "Why did she have it? I thought that stuff went
through you, so we wouldn't have to..."
"Uh well, she said she had to go over there to talk to your parents
about your job..." Kim looked nervous now. Probably because I was
about ready to strangle her.
"You LET her?" I hissed, but that got the attention of Mrs. Singley
who shushed me, like I was still in grade school. I almost stood up and
screamed at her to shut the fuck up, that I had to hear THIS one, but
managed to just sort of vibrate the urge away.
"It wasn't like I LET her, Val!" she whispered frantically at me.
"She just TOLD me she was gonna do it!"
I'd never understood why people ground their teeth; I wanted to
bite something in those situations.
Jill tapped me on the head and hissed, "Stop it!" I turned and
glared at her, and she continued at the same low volume, "You're
growling!" That was because I wanted to bite something.
***
09:52 6 Oct
"Well, at least my nails look really nice," I commented, before
making hanging-self motions.
"Stopit!" Kim ordered as she slapped my shoulder. "That isn't
funny!"
"It's gallows humor," I smirked and she hit me again as Jill
groaned in pain.
***
09:53 6 Oct
"We'll see you at lunch, right?" Jill asked me, looking a little
strange. Stranger than usual, I mean.
"Yeah, I think so... Yeah, I'll be there," I said more firmly.
For one thing, I'd have to explain things to the guys.
***
10:42 6 Oct
"Faggot!" The shove sent me spinning sideways into someone else,
and I rebounded back into the path of the orc that had shoved me the
first time. He shoved me again and I went down that time, but almost
reflexively hooked one of my feet behind his knee and shoved the other
one hard into his crotch.
From the noise he made after that, you'd have thought I'd shot him
or something. Luckily, the noise also cleared enough of the casually-
kicking feet away from me that I had room to get up, and then I left.
Quickly.
***
10:44 6 Oct
When I came into Government class, Sabrina and Amanda both looked
at me guiltily. "Hey," Amanda said as she quickly put a smile on her
face.
"What are you two plotting?" I demanded.
"Wickedness," Sabrina claimed. "Are you working, still? Debbie
wasn't sure... and if I could tell her, you wouldn't have to."
"Oh." That made a lot of sense, even to my tired brain.
Eventually, anyway. "Yeah, I think so... At least today."
"Tomorrow?" Amanda asked.
"Man, I have no idea," I sighed. "Dad seems to have calmed down,
but Mom..." Even if she had hit the drug locker for Sunday night's
interrogation and been calm, she wouldn't STAY that way.
"Yeah sure your dad's calmed down," Mike complained as he dropped
into his seat. "He's been looking for me."
"Wh-"
"Surveilling my house for one thing," he answered before I could
ask. "Asking my parents where I was... He's got ah pow'r'ful burnin'
desahr to have a tawk wi' me," he drawled.
I commented, "Oh shit," and Amanda nodded while Sabrina just looked
pained.
"So what did you tell him?" he demanded crisply, but the bell rang
before I could say anything.
"What about me?!" Sabrina suddenly spazzed, but I couldn't tell her
right now either.
***
11:33 6 Oct
"I knew this was gonna get you into shit," George mentioned.
"Fuck you, George. What I want to know is, though, who did YOU
call?" I asked Mike. "'Cause Debbie showed up at my house Sunday, and-"
"Oh, no!" the guys complained. Then Mike glared at Kim.
I continued, "And they had a 'nice discussion' about my work and
such things. And Dad wouldn't let me leave; he kept intercepting me."
"Debbie?" Kim asked. Guiltily, I thought.
I angrily affirmed, "Oh YEAH Debbie-"
"Look, I HAD to tell her," she explained quickly. "She's
officially your boss, and if you started talking about what you- uh, you
and her did, and stuff, then, um..."
"Then what?" Mike asked calmly when she wilted.
"Um...
"Thenwhat?!" I demanded.
"Well shit Tuck!" she complained, with a great deal of fear behind
it. "Your whole family is as psycho as you! I wanted to warn her in
case your mom or someone came after HER for dr- uh, this," she just
barely corrected.
"Great, you warned her," I grumbled. "Fantastic." Kim's eyes were
now bugging out a bit.
"You don't have to worry about them," Mike told Kim, I guess to be
reassuring. "They're not gonna hunt anyone down and torture them or
anything like that."
"Unless Mom goes completely unilateral," I mentioned, which could
be taken as a euphemism for 'acute psychotic' if you knew her. Mike
notified me that I shouldn't have said that by the usual method.
"What?" Kim complained as I bent down and rubbed my new bruise.
"Never MIND," Mike insisted. "Tuck's just being a dork again."
"Look, is Debbie in trouble?" Kim demanded.
"Shit, ask her!" I complained back. "She showed up at MY house at
a REAL bad time; she probably knows whatever trouble she's in better
than I do, 'cause I stayed about as far away from that scene as I could
get. Is she here today?" I asked. Kim and Amanda both nodded. "Then
she's still alive. Mom's not one for delayed assassination; if she
wanted Debbie's heart because of Sunday or whatever, she'd have gotten
it already."
"You are so reassuring," Kim told me. I think it was supposed to
be sarcastic.
"Hey, Tuck?" Sabrina called from behind us. I looked over my
shoulder and she was coming towards us. "Listen, I wanted to know,
uh... What do I do about math tutoring?"
"Aw hell, I don't even know," I sighed. "Here, lemme give you a
couple numbers to call, talk to my dad. If he gets nasty, just hang up
on him." I yanked out a piece of paper and started writing numbers.
"But I NEED the help!" she whined.
"Maybe I can help," Mike said. "I'm only a class behind Tuck. And
I speaka da Englitz better dan him."
"Um... Thanks," she said with a smile to Mike; I thought it was
fake. "I hope I don't need it. Mister Tucker's good." I handed her
the paper and wished her luck; I had no idea what Dad or Mom would do.
"So what else is gonna happen, Tuck?" George asked.
"Fuckifino," I sighed.
"Hey, where were you Thursday?" Amanda asked Sabrina.
"Rosh Hashana, like I said. Religious holiday; I got to take the
day off and go to synagogue the whole day," she sighed to us.
"Hooo, what a horrible fate," I said sarcastically.
As her face twisted angrily, Mike kicked the SHIT out of my shin,
and as I was gasping in pain, announced, "Tucker, don't be a fuckwit.
When was the last time YOU spent two hours in church? Happy new year,"
he said to Sabrina.
"Hngh," I agreed and nodded, and tried to figure out if my leg was
bleeding from the kick.
"So did you do the candles thing?" George asked.
I think everyone ended up staring at him, in the awful silence.
Kelly finally admitted, "I thought that was Christmas?"
***
11:58 6 Oct
It was becoming apparent that we weren't going to play today, and I
wished the freshthings would wander off because they weren't cleared for
a lot of the things that everyone else wanted to talk about.
"Tuck, did you call," Mike started, then yanked my collar over to
his neck and whispered, "Travis? Or him call you?"
"Erk!" I said, partially from strangulation, and pushed away from
Mike. "Shit, I dunno... I was kinda preoccupied this w-"
"Check your pager?" he suggested.
I looked where I remembered it last, and it wasn't there. Then
again, I wasn't wearing a bra today either. "Oh shit... I dunno what I
did with it! Fuck... Maybe I dumped it in the bathroom?"
"Dumped it?"
"In my p- Uh, bag. When Mom wasn't there yet. Oh shit I hope
so, I dunno what the hell-"
"Huhhhhh boy. Did you mention... this, to your parents during the
interrogation?"
I shook my head painfully. "It... it hurt too much to talk about.
I put it off."
"Mention what?" George asked. Trouble usually got his attention.
"Tuck," Mike warned.
"I am currently in enough shit to drown in," I told Mike. "The
LAST thing I need is to tell them more."
Mike demanded, "When?"
"When what?" Paul asked.
I sighed. "I said, uh, next time we saw Sheila."
"You SAID?" Mike gasped. "You set a TIME?" I shrugged. "Damn,
mano!" he crowed happily, slapping me on the back, "I thought you'd
never start thinking ahead!"
"What are you guys talking about?" Paul imagined he wanted to know.
"Besides, I don't know what the hell's going on," I sighed, feeling
sick again. "I can't talk to them until I figure that out."
"I can talk to him after school," Mike offered.
"What?" This was truly unusual.
"Bet yer dad won't think to look there," he chuckled a bit.
"If he's surveilling you, he could tail you there," I reminded him.
"I don't think he's that good. Besides, I got several hours to get
rid of him, right?"
"I guess," I sighed doubtfully.
There was just enough of a pause for Kelly to distract me with an
almost-shriek of, "Dance? What do you mean I have to go to a dance?!"
"You HAVE to come," Kim assured her.
"Besides, we're taking Tuck," Jill smirked.
"You ever think of asking me first?" I complained.
Anne Marie, Jill's little sister, asked politely, "Would you please
come with us?"
I stared at her in shock for a moment, then complained, "Where are
you all coming from today?!" The freshthings seemed to be budding or
something this morning.
"Maybe it's the pheromones," Paul smirked. I had absolutely no
idea what he was talking about.
"That'd be Tuck," George agreed.
"Oh fuck," I mentioned, which got me everyone's attention. "My ass
is still completely and utterly grounded for three weeks. I can't come.
My parents," I said over the groaning, "keep a closer eye on me around
prime time, and by the time they'd go to bed, the dance is over." I
guessed I'd blocked it out.
"You said you were grounded this morning," Jill groaned. "Tuck,
I'm sorry... I forgot."
"S'okay..." It wasn't okay, but that wasn't Jill's fault.
***
13:12 6 Oct
I was completely shocked by the cold/wet that hit my neck, and so
missed the golden moment when I could've maybe dislodged the coke
someone had upended and shoved inside the back of my shirt collar before
I got too wet. But I missed, and ended up getting completely drenched.
I whipped around when I could move, looking for the one laughing, but
everyone who'd been behind me was laughing their ass off.
***
14:04 6 Oct
I headed to the rendezvous point as fast as I could, getting out of
the building in favor of the maneuvering room outside, even though that
meant I had to run around two sides of the main building before I got
there.
Dad, stunningly, was waiting there for me, instead of it being Mom
and fifteen minutes late. "Oh man," I sighed, and hustled over to the
car.
"How was-"
"I hate this fucking school; pop the back so I can get a towel to
put over the seat," I told him. "Someone dumped a coke down my back
shirt."
"Just-"
"An hour ago, it's still sticky, open the fucking tail!" I screamed
as I lost it.
He did, but he also got out to guard me and watch my backtrail as I
fumbled with the big plastic box that held emergency gear, finally
finding a towel sealed in a ziplock. I unpacked it as I ran around to
the passenger side, and shoved the purse that was sitting in the seat to
the floor so I could put the towel down so we could get the hell out of
there ASAP.
***
14:09 6 Oct
"What purse?" I finally realized.
"You left that in our room after the first session," Dad said
neutrally, the first words he'd said since we left school. I whipped
over and glared at him, but he had a neutral expression on his face,
too, as he watched the road.
I reached down slowly and picked it up... then put it back down.
It could stay where it was.
"Where's Mom?" I asked, suspicious now.
"We had another discussion, and we decided that she was, hmmm...
Not in the mood to watch you while you babysit today."
"Oh g- WATCH ME? WHILE I babysit?!" I complained. "Oh no, no no
no no-"
"Oh yes," Dad nodded. "Quiet. Even if she doesn't want to, I have
to see some more of this in action. I'm... I don't know how you can DO
this."
"Dad it's just CLOTHES-"
"No," he shook his head, "it is not. It's not your medical
problems either. And you can do it, somehow, and if Beth Parker was any
indication, you do it almost as well as you think you do." I wasn't
sure if that was a compliment or not. "So," he said as he adjusted
himself in his seat a bit, "I want to watch this at closer range, for a
while."
"No, Dad! What if you mess up?" I whined, truly afraid of this.
"What do I call you normally?" he asked with a glance my way.
"What?"
"Tucker, right?"
"Ye-"
"That's your last name, isn't it?"
Pause.
The asshole had actually THOUGHT about this.
"What if you say 'he' or something?"
"Good grief, Tuck," he complained, like I should know the answer to
this already, "parents with more than one kid do that sort of thing all
the time. Remember Bill Cosby? 'You! Tell me your name, and don't you
lie to me because I'll find out!'," he quoted at me, ending with a
chuckle I didn't feel. "Besides, she's expecting us."
"She who?!"
"Beth Parker-"
"WHY?!" I accidentally screamed.
"Quiet!" he ordered sharply. "Because she wasn't sure if you were
going to be working today, remember? So, I called her today, to check
on some things, and she said she stayed home today, in case..."
"Oh god," I moaned over whatever he was driveling on with.
"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime," he quoted at me.
I debated how long I would be sentenced to prison for, for
patricide with the current set of extenuating circumstances including
old cliches. Longer, I decided, than the grounding would last. Damnit.
Pause.
"Where am I going?" he asked.
"What?"
"Where do you store your clothes? I assume that you have more than
one set?"
"D- Y- Wh- B- No reprisals," I finally uttered after a mental
train wreck.
"What?" he asked back.
"No reprisals, remember?"
"Agreed," he agreed. "And there's a bag of stuff in the back seat,
that you also didn't take with you to school today." I looked back, and
there was indeed a plastic garbage bag with stuff in it. "Like those
fake..."
"Boobs?" I smirked, enjoying his apparent discomfort. I'd had far
too much of my own lately; I was glad to see someone else in distress.
***
14:23 6 Oct
"You have a key?" he asked as I used it to open the door.
"I have to get in and out when they aren't home," I told him.
"Besides," I started, and then remembered that I'd left my laptop here
Friday night, and I ended up running up the stairs to make sure it was
still there.
It was.
"Oh man," I sighed, sick with relief.
"What was that all- Oh," he said when he saw me and the laptop
case. "You left it here?"
Eventually I could get out, "I didn't want to take it to a mall on
a Friday night." I was really post-panicked at the moment.
***
14:30 6 Oct
When I opened the bathroom door, still dripping, Dad asked, "So
what are you going to-"
"Dad, do we have to pick Ricky up?" I asked, interrupting. "Or is
Miz Parker gonna do it?" The water and lack of people had actually
enabled me to concentrate for a few minutes, and I'd found this lying
around in my head.
His eyebrows bobbled. "Uh-"
"Call her," I demanded, "If we have to pick him up at school, we
are leaving in ten minutes." He saluted me, I suppose as a joke. "Go!"
I ordered, and he got.
***
14:33 6 Oct
*What the hell do I wear?*
This was not as easy a question to answer as usual. Not only did I
have to worry about babysitting and what's clean, but there was my dad
to consider. Thinking about that made the room spin, but I held onto the
clothes rod and kept thinking. If I went too out-there, he'd freak; if
I went too 'normal', it was more likely he'd screw up the names.
It took me a couple of minutes to decide, but I got a floral-print
heavy top and one of my shortalls, which ought to be warm enough for the
various dashes to and from warmed-up cars. Those plus long 'trouser
socks', which I was not nor had I ever worn with trousers or slacks,
plus my trusty flats, ought to be enough to tip the scales even in Dad's
rather thick head.
***
14:41 6 Oct
Locking the bedroom door had kept him out - I did not feel like
changing while he was watching. I could tell he wanted to watch by the
way he kept jiggling the doorknob. I also really didn't want him
screwing up the phone call to Miz Parker, not after all the shit this
weekend about me working there. And a distraction, like watching me
stuff fake boobs into a bra I was wearing, was just the sort of thing to
get him to screw up on the phone.
"Stop trying to look at me naked and let's go," I announced when I
opened the door and yanked the knob out of his hands. He took a couple
steps backwards and tried to look innocent or something. "What did she
say?"
"Uh..." He was staring at me.
"Whatdidshesay?!"
"Uh, yeah, if we can pick him up..."
"Then," I sighed, "let's fucking GO!"
"What the hell is-"
"I have a JOB to do, and YOU are INTERFERING with it!" I reminded
him. "If we have to pick him up, he expects me there at three. And I
don't want to leave him there too long," I remembered as I gathered my
stuff up, including the laptop. "I think he gets picked on or something
if I do."
"You wanna drive?" he asked, and I yanked his keys away from him
before he could take them back, and then I was aiming for the front
door.
***
14:53 6 Oct
"Would you stop staring at me?"
"I can't believe you," he said, shaking his head.
"What? So I'm not driving like a maniac, so-"
"You look almost like your sister," he mentioned, and at the
reminder of the girl thing, I started to flush hard. "It's... Eugene,
this-"
"DAD! DAMNIT!" I yelled at him. "That is EXACTLY why I didn't
want you to come! Shit... can you just leave me there and pick me up at
seven?" I panted in horror.
"I will not make that mistake again," he said solemnly. "Valerie."
I guess he said that to show me he knew what to call me... when he was
thinking about it.
"Oh god," I moaned. I WANTED to believe him; but I didn't think
he'd done it a minute ago on purpose either. Best of all, of course,
would be if he would just go away, and let me babysit in peace.
"May I finish?" he demanded.
"Yeah, go on..."
Pause.
"Now I can't remember what I was going to say," he complained.
"Aw jeez!" *And I'm stuck with this the rest of the day?*
***
15:02 6 Oct
Ricky didn't come rushing up to the car, and I had developed a bad
mood, for some reason. Haha. So I got out of the car, took a deep
breath, let it out and cleared my throat, took another deep breath, and
screamed, "RICKYYYYY! FRONT AND CENTER! NOW!"
"And you sound like Susan when y-"
"Dad, shut the hell up." Finally, Ricky appeared out of the mass
of seething prepubescents, and I waved at him until he changed bearing
towards us.
"I'll drive there," Dad told me.
"'Kay, whatever," I said as I went around the car, still
concentrating on Ricky. "Hey sport!"
"Hey," he sighed. "Who's that?" he asked suspiciously.
'Some pervert who's kidnapping me; go call the cops!' flashed
through my mind, and I had to bite my lip to restrain it. "Um, my dad.
I'm grounded, and he thinks he has to take me to work and school and
stuff. It's a rule at our house," I corrected.
"What did you do?"
"I'm NOT telling you, neither is he, and your mom doesn't know so
don't ask her either," I said as I opened the back door for him. "And
if you start guessing out loud, I'll tie your neck in a knot."
"Shotgun!" he shrieked.
"Awwww..." *SHIT!* That was how the entire damned day had- No,
the entire WEEK had been going. I was starting to feel like my
astrological house had moved into the sign of Wrong Way. "Get in the
stupid car."
"Haaaaa!" he jeered at me, and I almost stuffed him in the glove
compartment.
***
15:22 6 Oct
"Hi Miz Parker," I sighed as I came in.
"Hi Valerie!" she smiled at me. "Why the-"
"Good afternoon," Dad said as he came in and shut the front door
behind me. I pointed covertly at Dad to show her why, and she nodded a
bit as she stood up to do whatever adults did for politeness. I had to
get some food into Ricky before he died of starvation, so I just
proceeded into the kitchen.
***
15:24 6 Oct
"What-"
"Ahhh!"
"-ya fixin'?" Dad finished.
"I'm fixing to die of shock," I gasped as I leaned against the
counter.
"Gee," Dad said innocently, "you seem nervous today."
"Ican'tpossiblyimaginewhyI'dbenervous!" I accidentally yelled at
him.
He stared at me and ordered, "How about some fruit and cheese out
front? We're hungry," and then left before I could find anything good
to throw at him.
***
15:31 6 Oct
"Valer-"
"Ahhh!"
"I'm sorry," Miz Parker apologized.
"S'okay, I'm just on edge today," I apologized. "Did you want
something?"
"Would it be okay with you if I ran some errands for the gallery?"
she asked.
"Uh, yeah, sure... Why wouldn't it be?"
She made a face and pointed back to the front of the house, which I
didn't understand. "Uh, your father?" she amplified quietly, which I
got.
"Um, sure... He's just getting on my nerves, I mean, it's not like
he's gonna beat me in front of Ricky or anything like that," I said.
"On the other hand, if you'd rather ME run the errands for you..."
She made a sad face like she'd like to help but had to say no.
***
16:03 6 Oct
"Ricky?" I thought he'd be up front trying to wheedle what I'd
done out of my dad. Which, if he did, would be the perfect excuse to
kill everyone in the house and become a fugitive.
"Sup?" I asked instead of heading for the Open Road.
"He turned on CNN and he's working on HIS laptop," he sighed as he
plopped down in a chair. "I'm bored."
"Wanna help cook?"
"I'm not that bored. What are you doing?"
"Working on my homework," I lied. I was working on booby-trapping
my laptop, is what I was doing. If Dad burned the PROM tonight, I'd be
all set, except for installing the stupid thing.
***
17:44 6 Oct
I hadn't seen either of them for a while, so when I got to a pause
in cooking, I went to look for one or both of them. Actually, I wasn't
so hot on finding Dad, but Mom would probably be even more pissed with
me if I lost him than she had been Friday night.
When I found them, I almost wet myself. "DAD! WHAT are you
DOING?!"
"Jeez, just teaching him how to play cards-" he got out before I
could recover and get over to the coffee table and confiscate
everything. I could just see Miz Parker going, 'You let WHO do WHAT to
MY CHILD?!'
"Oh my god, I leave you alone for twenty minutes and I can't
BELIEVE the trouble you get in-"
"You know what?" Dad interrupted. "You sound just like your mother
when you do that."
***
17:47 6 Oct
"Is he gonna ground you more for kicking him?" Ricky asked.
"He can't ground me without Mom's permission, and if he tells her
about this one, she'd laugh at him," I answered, and decided that the
Parkers were going to have a salad tonight. I felt like using a knife
for a while.
***
18:32 6 Oct
"How come you never cook like this at home?" Dad complained.
"A, I do every Sunday, and B, you don't pay me enough to do it
every day," I snapped back.
"You're in a mood."
"Get out!"
He left. I almost threw a bell pepper at him, but I was shaking a
little too hard to pick it up before he got past the door.
***
19:13 6 Oct
"I didn't realize," Dad said after several nasty minutes of silence
in the car, "just how... How far, this had gone."
I stared out the window, not replying.
"What did you think you were doing?" he asked casually. "Both
adults spoke highly of you... and I don't think they have the least idea
of what's going on."
"I told you I was good. But you never listen to me."
"You don't ever listen to me any more either," he lied. "Why the
risk? Why there, of all places?"
"I like the job, and I like the family, okay? They don't give me a
lot of grief, and... and it works, it meshes. I can do what they don't
want to do, and they pay me more money than I'd get somewhere else for
the same stuff."
"Girl's-"
"What the fuck is the goddamned difference?" I complained, now
facing him. "You wore a suit and tie for a few years! What the hell is
the difference?"
"Gender," he said simply, and that took me a while to figure out.
"Maybe it's different for me than it is for you," I complained as I
turned back to the window.
"I KNOW that," he said, softly exasperated. "One of the questions
which you haven't answered yet, is WHY is it different?"
I sighed deeply.
"You need to think about that."
"Shut up," I muttered.
***
20:44 6 Oct
I'd wondered where Mom was, since she wasn't around, but finally I
found out, when I aurally detected her crying in her bedroom. I guessed
that was where Dad had ended up too.
I went to my room, shut the door, and wondered if I could ever fix
this mess.
***
21:01 6 Oct
I actually had email again. This one was from Mike.
<Talked to Travis,> he'd written an hour ago. <He's pissed. Give
him some time to think about things. WHY didn't you TELL him about your
other (original) life?>
"Well, it didn't come up!" I complained loudly back at the email.
<You dumbass,> he continued. <That's what he's most pissed about.
He told me he'll call you in a few days. Suggest you don't call him
first.>
"Well, shit..." I didn't think I needed to cry again, but I was
already.
***
00:16 7 Oct
At least I hadn't screamed this time, when Travis spat on me and
everyone started laughing...
***
00:33 7 Oct
I had stopped crying after about twenty minutes, so I went to
shower and stuff. It wouldn't make me feel better, but I might smell
better after a good scrub.
***
00:57 7 Oct
"Oh man oh man oh man..." Dad had burned the PROM, sometime, and
now all I had to do was take the laptop apart, pull the old one, install
the new one, make sure it worked, then reassemble the 3D jigsaw puzzle
into a working computer. In five hours. "Yes! Life is good..."
***
06:16 7 Oct
*And a change of clothes, or at least a shirt, inside the pack for
padding... Add a towel too,* I decided. *Can't hurt to know where that
is. Underwear,* I decided as well. I was feeling psychically sticky
after yesterday afternoon, and I didn't want to feel that way again for
that long.
***
06:38 7 Oct
"You again?" I asked as Dad came mumbling out of their bedroom.
He said something nasty at me, so I told him, "Give me your keys so
I can warm up the car." He did, and I did, and waited for him to get
there. Leaving without him was tempting; on the other hand, I had
little doubt that he'd do something rude as punishment, like get me
busted for grand theft auto.
***
06:49 7 Oct
"It work?" Dad asked after a long silence.
"Huh?"
"PROM?"
"Oh yeah!" I enthused. "Boots fine, password is fine, loads good,
works with the tracer program, both ends... Worked on it most of the
night, but man, it works!"
"Ung, great," he nodded dazedly. He wasn't awake yet, but I
thought he'd be impressed when he did wake up finally; which is why I'd
left him some notes and source and suchlike in files.
***
06:57 7 Oct
"When I'm grounded," I explained, "or any of us, the 'rents take us
to and from work. And sometimes they stay there, and watch what we're
doing."
"Aw MAN!" Jill complained bitterly, like she had anything to worry
about.
"Sabrina chickened out last night too," Kim mentioned as she played
with her coffee. "I think she called and left a message, but she said
she was too scared to show up."
"What... Is there anything we can do?" Jill asked me again.
I'd thought of one thing. "Yeah. If they wanna talk to you about
me, avoid 'em. They're good at interrogating, and I... I think I told
them enough of the basics, but..." I shrugged. "I HAVE been doing this
for almost a year, and I hadn't been keeping a fucking logbook, so I
could've missed some things, and Mom could use one or more of those as
an excuse." They just looked sad, or melancholy. "Hey, could've been
worse; you could've been there when Mom caught me, and then you'd still
be locked in the basement or being interrogated."
"If you weren't so fucking optimistic about things I'd be worried
about you," Kim snapped, and got a cuff from Jill.
"It's my cheerful and carefree nature," I shot back, and then the
bell rang, so all she could do was kick me for a reply.
***
Few parents nowadays pay any regard to what their children say to them.
The old-fashioned respect for the young is fast dying out. - Oscar Wilde
Distribution:
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+ @>--,--'----- Ellen Hayes o===[-------- __ vicki .sig +
-=[1990]=- \/ virus 12.2
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